By Chance, By Choice
by Akari Ito
Summary: A scared girl running for her life from a creature with no name is saved by a passing stranger. The stranger nurses her back to health and when she wakes up what does she find? How will the situation play out for the two of them.


**Chapter 1**

**Terror**

**AN: I don't own Fairy Tail. This story is rated T but at some points it may cross into the rating of M. This is an alternate universe story but it will have some of the same aspects as a normal Fairy Tail story.**

Lucy was running, running for her life her surroundings were dark, cold, wet, rough and dangerous. The moon was hidden behind the clouds so there was no light for her to see by but she kept running. She was cut and bleeding her feet were raw from being barefoot but none of that mattered she continued to run her life depended on it. Her heart pounded in in her head her legs ached from running her lungs burned from breathing so hard. Lucy tripped on a root causing her to fall rocks from the ground piercing her as she landed. She didn't give any time for her to stay still she got up and began to run again a sharp pain in her left ankle. She twisted it when she had fallen but still she ran the pain going unnoticed as she ran harder than before. She didn't look back afraid to see the thing that chased her the horrible creature that she dreaded the monster that had chased her for as long as she could remember. The creature that had no name the one that couldn't be explained the one that had tormented her.

For a long she had been shut in a tower to protect her from the beast but after her father and mother died she was forced to leave. Again the beast chased her whenever she had no place to stay to protect her from it. The creature only chased her at night and she had been thrown out of where she had been staying at just as the sun set. Lucy walked for a while until she heard the sinister growl. The moment she heard it she began to run never stopping to look back she had been running for hours not slowing down. The only time she stopped was when she fell but even then she got right back up and kept running. Once when she was young she had been caught by the beast and it slit open her side before it was scared off by people. She now had a nasty scar there and never wanted to be caught like that ever again. She ran her strength starting to fail her legs about to give out but she continued to run because if she didn't she would be killed. Finally she tripped on a rock crashing into the gravely earth with a large thud breaking her right upper arm.

She attempted to get up again but was unable to because the beast had caught her and pounced on top of her. Lucy's mind was filled with one thing that this was it, she was going to die suffering all alone. Giving up Lucy closed her eyes waiting for the pain to come from being torn apart limb by limb. The pain never came only silence was heard so she cautiously opened her eyes to see what happened. The moment she opened her eyes she saw the faint glow of a fire and the ceiling of a cabin. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there, one minute she was in the forest about to die and the next she was laying on a bed in cabin she had never seen before. She was confused and frightened not knowing what to think or how to feel about the situation she was in. At that moment the pain she had been neglecting came in a wave causing her to scream in agony. In her agony she was aware of a person rushing to her putting a pill in her mouth and giving her water to swallow it by. Then the person put a cloth in water wrung it out before placing it on her forehead to cool her down. Her thoughts became foggy as she drifted into a deep sleep relieving her from her pain and suffering.

**~His View~**

Natsu was in the woods coming home from a day's hunting when he heard shriek of a girl. He saw her crash to the ground and attempt to get up when a creature pounced on her about to kill her. He saw the girl close her eyes willing the beast to tear her apart having no will to fight it off. He couldn't stand there and watch he attacked the monster causing it to run off saving the girls life. He knelt down to see if she was alright but her eyes didn't open she had gone unconscious. Her looked over her and saw her cuts and her broken arm and her ankle that had been twisted so badly it had broken. She was bloody and beaten barely alive barely holding onto the life she had left inside. He carefully lifted her slender body that was so light the wind could have blown her over her body was extremely delicate. He brought her into his house carefully laying her on his bed then he got water and began to clean off the blood.

He tried not to look at her while he cleaned her but it couldn't be helped since he had to see what he was doing. He cleaned the cuts on her leg and foot careful of her broken ankle he wrapped her wounds. Then he turned her ankle back to reset it and he wrapped a bandage around it to protect it. It was to swollen for a cast so that would need to wait but he could at least stabilize it with the bandages. After he had it stabilized her ankle he continued to treat her legs cleansing the cuts then bandaging them as carefully as he could. Then he cleaned her arms again just wrapping her arm since it was swollen. After he finished with her arms he moved to her face he carefully washed the blood away and removed any gravel in the wounds.

He carefully cleansed her wounds and bandaged them as best as he could and then he moved to her neck. He wiped off the blood and bandaged the cuts she had careful not to make things worse. Now came the hard part the rest of her body, he decided that in order to help her he needed to remove the rags she used for clothes. He had to cut them away in order to remove them, he tried to respect her privacy but he had to look at what he was doing. He carefully washed her chest and abdomen the he carefully turned her on her side and cleaned her back. He cleansed her wounds then he sat her up so he could wrap bandages around her front and back. Finally he finished cleaning her up and her tucked her into his bed then went to toss out the bloody cloths and her clothes and dump the bloody water. He got clean cloths and water and cloths and every day he would redress he wounds to make sure she wouldn't get an infection.

About a week after he found her she woke up for the first time screaming bloody murder he immediately gave her a pain medication then put a cool cloth on her forehead. She fell back into unconsciousness the pain overwhelming her and she had developed a slight infection that caused her to have a fever. He had been able to set her broken bones but now he was concerned about her cuts that had caused infection. She was in and out of consciousness the fever causing delirium and more problems. Time passed and it had been a month and each day he kept a close eye on her to make sure she healed properly. The infection lasted for a long time and so did her fever and when the infection had been dealt with he had to wait for her fever to leave.

She slept still burning with fever her arm and leg had healed and now all that remained was that fever. It was now three months since he found her and he prayed for the day when the fever broke and she would wake up. Then after getting some water and firewood he went to check on her and saw that her fever was gone. He knew that she would soon wake up and he was glad that she would since he had been so worried. For most of the day he spent his time sitting by the bed holding her hand in his. In the time that he first found her until now he had grown used to her being there and he wanted to finally meet the person he had cared for all this time.

**~Normal View~**

Lucy opened her eyes the early morning sun shone in her eyes causing her to stir at how bright it was. "You're finally awake how do you feel?" Natsu asked noticing her squinting. "Thirsty." Lucy croaked her throat was completely dry. "Here drink this." Natsu said lifting her head and putting a cup to her lips so she could drink. "Thanks." Lucy said after he took the cup away and put her head down. "You're welcome." He said. "Where am I? Who are you? What happened? How did I get here? And how long have I been here?" Lucy asked the questions that came to her mind. "To answer who I am, my name is Natsu Dragneel." He said. "I'm Lucy Heartfilia." She said.

"As to where you are, you are in my cottage. To answer what happened and how you got here I was returning home when I saw you being attacked I scared the beast away and then carried you here because you were unconscious. Finally to answer how long you've been here, it has been 3 months and 4 days since I brought you here." He said answering her questions. "If you brought me here does that mean that you fixed me up?" She asked. "Yes I did and my sister and I have been watching you while you slept." Natsu answered. "Did you clean all of me or did your sister help?" Lucy asked her face pink at the thought of him possibly having seen her naked.

"I had to because my sister was visiting a friend when I found you and wouldn't have been back for a week." Natsu replied his face also pink. "That means you saw me naked." Lucy said stating the obvious. "I tried to clean you quickly so that I wouldn't for long and when I put new bandages on I went as fast as I could. Once my sister was back she changed your bandages so I wouldn't have to." Natsu said his face bright pink. "Thank you I appreciate your kindness." Lucy said the blush stuck on her cheeks. "No problem, I'll be right back I promised that the moment you woke up I would tell my sister, she's hanging up the laundry right now." Natsu said standing up. "Alright." Lucy said. She watched him leave the room and once he was gone she groaned knowing he had seen her naked. She didn't have to wait long for him to return because the next minute she heard steps running toward her.

"Hi my name is Wendy Marvell, Natsu's sister." A girl with long royal blue hair and rich chocolaty brown eyes said sitting on the edge of the bed. "Hi I'm Lucy Heartfilia." Lucy said softly amazed at the girl's enthusiasm. "I asked Natsu to stay outside so you can get dressed. You'll have to borrow some of Natsu's for now but as soon as you feel up to it we can get you some in town." Wendy said handing Lucy pants and a shirt. "Thank you." Lucy said taking the clothes. Lucy was weak from being asleep for so long but she managed to get dressed. "Wendy do you have a ribbon I could use for a belt and a hairband I could borrow?" Lucy asked. "Oh sure, here you go." Wendy said handing them to Lucy.

"I appreciate all you and your brother have done for me, as soon as I am strong enough I'll help out to earn my stay until I can move on." Lucy said carefully standing up holding onto the bedside table. "Don't worry you don't need to do that we are glad to have you stay here with us and you can stay as long as you want." Wendy said helping Lucy walk to sit in the living room. "You are very kind but I want to help around here." Lucy said when she sat down. "Alright it'll be a lot of help to me, I'll be back I'm going to tell Natsu that it's ok for him to come in now." Wendy said walking outside.


End file.
